1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk drive device that records information signal in an optical disk and/or reproduces information signal from the optical disk, and, more particularly to a disk drive device of a so-called slot-in type that directly inserts an optical disk into a device body.
2. Description of the Related Art
As optical disks, optical disks such as a CD (Compact Disk), a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), and a BD (Blue-ray Disk) and optical magnetic disks such as an MO (Magneto optical disk) and an MD (Mini Disk) have been widely known. Various disk drive devices corresponding to these disks, disk cartridges, and the like have appeared in the market.
As types of the disk drive devices, for example, there are a type for opening a lid and a door provided in a housing and directly mounting a disk on a turntable seen from the lid or the door opened, a type for placing a disk on a disk tray, which is push into and pulled out of a housing in a horizontal direction, to automatically mount the disk on a turntable in the inside of the housing when the disk tray is pulled into the housing, and a type for directly mounting a disk on a turntable provided on a disk tray. However, in all the types, an operator needs to perform operation for opening and closing the lid or the door, pushing the disk tray into and pulling the disk tray out of the housing, and mounting the disk on the turntable.
On the other hand, there is a disk drive device of a so-called slot-in type in which an optical disk is automatically mounted on a turntable simply by inserting the optical disk from a disk inserting and ejecting opening provided on a front surface of a housing. The disk drive device of the slot-in type includes a pair of guide rollers opposed to each other that nip the optical disk inserted from the disk inserting and ejecting opening. The disk drive device performs, by rotating the pair of guide rollers in opposite directions, respectively, a loading operation for pulling the optical disk inserted from the disk inserting and ejecting opening into the inside of the housing and an eject operation for ejecting the optical disk to the outside of the housing from the disk inserting and ejecting opening.
In a mobile device such as a notebook-type personal computer mounted with a disk drive device, a further reduction in size, weight, and thickness is demanded. Therefore, there is also an increasing demand for a reduction in size, weight, and thickness of the disk drive device. In such circumstances, as the disk drive device of the slot-in type, there is proposed a disk drive device in which a contact section brought into contact with an outer periphery of an optical disk inserted from a disk inserting and ejecting opening of a front panel is provided at a front end of the disk drive device and plural rotational arms, base ends of which are rotatably supported, are arranged. The disk drive device performs, while rotating these rotational arms in a plane parallel to the optical disk, a loading operation for pulling the optical disk into the inside of a housing and an eject operation for ejecting the optical disk to the outside of the housing from the disk inserting and ejecting opening (see, for example, JP-A-2002-117604 and JP-A-2005-100595). Among disk drive devices that are reduced in thickness, for an ultra-thin disk drive device mounted on a notebook-type personal computer and the like, thickness of 12.7 mm is set as a standard size. Moreover, a disk drive device with thickness reduced to 9.5 mm, which is equivalent to thickness of a hard disk drive (HDD) unit, is also proposed.
In such a disk drive device, in performing the disk loading operation and the eject operation while rotating the plural rotational arms in the plane parallel to the optical disk, it is necessary to prevent the rotational arms from colliding against a turntable of a disk mounting section that rotatably holds the optical disk and an engaging projection provided in the turntable and inserted through and engaged with a center hole of the optical disk.
However, in the disk drive device reduced in thickness, it is difficult to set an area of rotation of the rotational arms high because thickness of the housing is increased. Thus, it is necessary to rotate the rotational arms at minimum height for preventing the rotational arms from colliding against the disk mounting section. In a disk drive device mounted on a portable electronic apparatus, rotational arms are driven even in a state in which the electronic apparatus is not placed in a stable place. Thus, it is likely that the rotational arms are swung to collide against a disk mounting section.
Further, in the disk drive device described above that has the plural rotational arms arranged therein and performs the disk loading operation and the eject operation while rotating the rotational arms in the plane parallel to the disk, the disk drive device ejects the optical disk by rotating the rotational arms with an urging member such as a torsion coil spring that urges rotation in an ejecting direction of the optical disk. In ejecting the optical disk to the outside of the device body, it is necessary that an opening formed in the center of the optical disk should be exposed to the outside and the optical disk should be set stationary in a position where the optical disk is prevented from dropping because of an own weight of the optical disk. The optical disk is set stationary in such a position because a user can grip the opening and the sides of the optical disk and handle the optical disk without touching a signal recording surface.
However, in the disk drive device, since a driving force for ejection of the optical disk is only a force of spring elasticity, variation tends to occur in the stationary position of the optical disk ejected to the outside of the apparatus. Variation in the stationary position of the optical disk may be caused by a change in an elastic force due to an aged deterioration in the urging member. Moreover, in the disk inserting/removing hole through which the optical disk is inserted or ejected, a panel curtain made of non-woven fabric may be provided in order to stabilize the stationary position of the optical disk and remove dust and the like adhering to the signal recording surface of the optical disk. However, when there is variation in a quality of the panel curtain, it is difficult to stabilize the stationary position of the optical disk.
There is also proposed a disk drive device that includes a motor and a link mechanism for transmitting a driving force of the motor to rotational arms in order to stabilize a stationary position of an optical disk and stabilizes the stationary position of the optical disk by controlling rotation of the rotational arms at the time of ejection using the motor and the link mechanism. However, in such a disk drive device, when the optical disk is ejected to the outside of a device body, a force in a direction opposite to a driving direction of the motor and the link mechanism may act on the optical disk. This is because there is an obstacle such as a book or a part of a body of a user on a conveyance area of the optical disk or the optical disk is pushed back in an insertion direction by the user who suddenly decides to stop ejection of the optical disk. In such a case, excessive loads are applied to the rotational arms, the motor, and the link mechanism. Besides, it is likely that the optical disk is broken by conflicting forces, that is, a driving force in an ejection direction by the rotational arms and a force acting in an opposite direction.